Page 8 - Issue 9
P. 8

The history of law
          Upper Nile, Unity versus Warrap, Lakes
          and Central Equatoria. The fighting in               enforcement in the U.S. was
          Jonglei is a politico-community war. It
          involves Morlei, Nuer Low and Dinka.                 interwoven with slavery
          The war expected to erupt in Upper
          Nile, would be among the Nuer, Dinka   By Heather Mac Donald  and segregation
          and shilluk.

          The question I ask is: The war going
          on  in central  Equatoria is  said  to  be  a
          liberation war, against who? It is not yet
          clear, but gossip points an accusing finger
          on politicians and warlords. These wars
          are not small; they can seriously divide
          the communities, states and regions
          or  could  derail  the  ongoing  revitalized
          national peace.
          Let’s accept the fact that our country is
          at the climax of national paralysis, and
          dispersal in all fields of livelihoods.
          All of us must unite; avoid social and
          political anarchy for national dialogue,      George Floyd was killed after an officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota
                                                        knelt on his neck for at Least nine minutes. (Picture: Facebook)
          reconciliation and forgiveness.
                                              t is understandable and appropriate,
          In my opinion, the problems facing   Iwhen viewing the horrific arrest and   Washington Post’s data base of fatal
          the country now are comprehensively   death of George Floyd, to ask whether   police shootings showed nine unarmed
          identified by many South Sudanese   we are seeing the tip of the iceberg   black  victims  and  19  unarmed  white
          intellectuals’ forums, such as the   when it comes to policing and the brutal   victims of fatal police shootings in 2019.
          National Dialogue forum, Ebony centre-  indifference to human life. The history   That number of black unarmed victims
          Think Tank, Sudd Research institution;   of  law  enforcement  in  the  U.S.  was   is down 76% from 2015, when the Post
          professionals schools of know-how,   interwoven with slavery and segregation.   began keeping its data base.
          universities and other centers in Africa   The memory of policing complicity with   The  point  here  is  not  to  justify  any  of
          and elsewhere in the world.       racial oppression cannot be easily erased.  these deaths, it is to rebut the claim
          Available are South Sudanese writers   To move from the stomach-churning   that questionable tactics occur only in
                                                                               the case of black suspects. Indeed, it is
          like Francis Mading Deng, Jacob Jiel   specificity of Mr. Floyd’s case to broader   premature to conclude that the Floyd
          Akol, Bona Malual, Dr. Lual A Deng,   numbers is jarring. Nevertheless, if   brutality was a product of racial animus
          and many more. And further, refer   the charge against policing is systemic   at all, as opposed to poor training and an
          to historical records for political   racism, we need to look at the system as   unfit temperament.
          philosopher, Dr. John Garang’s on unity   a whole.                   No  police  critic has  ever  suggested a
          of Sudanese Africans, Arabs, Muslims   Blacks between the ages of ten and 43 die   benchmark for evaluating the number
          and Christians.  History  of decolonized   of homicide at thirteen times the rate of   of officer use of force incidents. Ideally,
          and post independence developments   whites, according to the CDC. In New   officers would take no one’s life in the
          infrastructures are available.    York City, blacks make up 73% of all   course of their duties. But in light of
          These groups and individuals are not   shooting victims, though they are 23%   the number of arrests that officers make
          being consulted on issues that touch   of the city’s population. In Chicago in   each year--around 11 million–and the
          on their profession and experiences to   2016, there were 4300 shooting victims,   number  of  deadly  weapons  attacks  on
          success or failure and why? There is no   almost all black.          officers—27 a day in just two-thirds of
          country anywhere in the world that does   Are the police nevertheless engaging   the nation’s police departments--it is
          not consult or refer problems for expert   in an epidemic of racist violence, as we   not clear that 1000 civilian deaths, the
          opinion or advice, particularly when the   hear daily? They are not. For the last five   vast majority occurring in the face of
          country is still under establishment and   years, the police have killed about 1000   a potentially deadly attack, show a law
          eventual nation building.         civilians a year, the vast majority of those   enforcement profession that is out of
                                            victims armed or otherwise dangerous.   control.
          The politicians need to involve South   In 2019, the police killed 235 blacks,   -Redacted
          Sudanese civil society, women, youth,   most of them also armed or dangerous,
          intellectuals and the church, in order to   out of 1004 police shooting victims   -  Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W.
                                                                               Smith fellow at the Manhattan Institute,
          succeed in their endeavor to implement   overall.                    contributing editor at City Journal, and
          the R. ARCSS successfully. Otherwise   What about unarmed victims of fatal   the author of the bestselling The on Cops
          implementation process shall fail.   police shootings? As of June 1, the   and The Diversity Delusion.


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